Putting the plot-bunnies out to pasture

Entries tagged with psych

There was some relatively high profile crime that Shawn solved in a fairly high profile manner. (Okay, go ahead and pick an episode, pretty much any episode of Psych. There are maybe two exceptions?) Whatever. However, it has attracted attention, specifically, it has attracted the attention of the secret military no-longer-The-Initiative group.

They recruit psychics. However, they know better than to trust just anyone claiming to be a psychic even if he did just solve a crime. So they hire an outside contractor to come with them, to see if he’s really as psychic as all that.

Thus, Riley et al plus Willow show up at the police station, with the intention of interviewing the police’ psychic consultant. The Chief is taken aback. Lassiter is caught between being appalled that anyone is taking Shawn that seriously and delighted that finally Shawn will be revealed as a fraud.

When Shawn finally bounces in, he thinks it’s awesome. Gus is significantly more nervous. (“It’s one thing to lie to the police, it’s another thing to lie to secret military people who could kill you with their pinkies.” “So you agree that it’s okay to lie to the police?” “No! But lying to the police will get you thrown in county lock-up. Lying to the military, you’ll get sent to Guatanomo Bay and tortured!” “Hey, I’ve been lying to the police for years, and never sent to county lock-up.” “Shawn! Be serious.” “I am serious.”)

Willow does her thing with a bit of chanting and a few herbs thrown hither and yon. Shawn is practically taking notes. The no-longer-The-Initiative are looking stoic. Lassiter is looking ever more appalled.

“Yup. He’s psychic all right.” She sounded amused.

“What? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Lassiter was appalled. (He’s appalled a lot, come to think of it. Pretty much constantly.)

“It’s pretty giggle-worthy from my perspective, too. Psychic a catch-all term. A lot of different symptoms get all grouped together under the one phrase, but not all psychics are alike. His ability is really tightly bound-up with sight and memory. It’s not strong but it’s really well-trained. I doubt he ever gets the clichéd visions, but he’ll almost always be drawn to noticing the pertinent details. And, not to reveal too much of what I saw in his head, boy did his dad really screwed the pooch on this one if he wanted mature adulthood in his son. It took an extra bit of something to live up to expectations, but while psychics get more input from the world around themselves they also tend to be a lot more flaky.”

“Hah!”

“A warning—and as police you should already know this—just because a person saw something you didn’t, doesn’t mean they’re telling you the truth. That’s a warning for you, too, Shawn. If you ever do get in contact with a spirit or power: they have motives of their own and are just as likely to lie as a living being and tend to have fewer tells to let you know.

In the end, I think, the military decides that he isn’t actually powerful enough as a psychic to help them. And they go away again. This could very easily be a one shot, but I have too many other projects going on to really develop it properly.